Avonlea's Going to School

(This is a long one and still no pictures...sorry folks.) =(

So, after much thought and prayer, we've decided to send Avonlea to preschool for a few half days a week, allowing her to make friends and have some socialization that we just can't make up for in homeschooling (we'll still be doing school at home when she's not "in school"). The funny part about all of this is that (I'm not going to mention specific names since this is the internet) we're sending her to the rival school of where Rob and I went to high school. We pulled up this morning feeling a little like traitors, but this school is less expensive having the same Christ-centeredness that our school had, which is most important to us. Anyway, as we toured her future classroom, she took right away to her teacher (she's adorable!) and classmates. They were actually having a birthday party for the teacher (some parents were there celebrating and the teacher had on a princess crown...too cute.).
I think even Lincoln wanted to stay and play. They also had donuts and since it's a splurge when our kids get to eat donuts, they were asking if they could have some. The teacher set them down at the table and they joined in the snack time and festivities. We then pried them away from the classroom and took a tour of the rest of the school. It was funny being back there because as high schoolers, whenever we played this school in sports, we were there on campus and not too much has changed (with the exception of some new buildings, etc.). We saw the music room (the music teacher was my favorite, which is great because that's an important part of our family's life), the chapel (yes, the preschoolers have chapel and I think it's great. They learn the pledges (Bible, Christian flag and American flag...I heard the other day that it's optional in public school now, SAD), they sing songs, take up an offering for their missionaries, say Bible verses and today they were practicing for their Christmas play. The only thing we were a little concerned about was the curriculum for the 3s classroom. They're focusing on a letter a week (Avonlea already knows hers...upper and lowercase, the sounds each letter makes and multiple words each one stands for, BUT repitition is never a bad thing) and the numbers they focus on are only up to the number 5. Avonlea can count to 30 in English and 20 in Spanish. They do practice on writing their names which she can do, but the letters she writes are all uppercase and we've been informed to practice only the beginning letter uppercase and the rest lowercase (makes sense), so we'll be practicing that.
All in all, she's really looking forward to the classroom experience and I have to admit that I'll be enjoying some alone time with Lincoln while she's gone. The two of them have always had to fight for my attention during the day, so this will help a little with that.

My baby is growing up. Hard to believe!